An accessible archive is an important part of any country with a complex history, including Ukraine, so U.S. archivists are helping Ukrainian archivists.

Trudy Peterson, former archivist of the United States, and Ferriero recently led discussions with Ukrainian archivists on records management and the role of archives in society. While Ukraine’s passage of the Open Data Law in early 2015 is a positive step toward making government records available to the public, much more work needs to be done, said Peterson.

Ferriero said the biggest ethical responsibility of archivists is to ensure that no bias is brought to the work of collecting records and making them accessible. Archivists must document both sides of history, both “the good stories and the bad stories.”

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York County’s libraries offers help finding books suited to patron’s tastes and the Tabb Library, 100 Long Green Blvd., offers free one-on-one appointments with library staff for assistance with various topics. Requests for either one can be made online by filling out the Looking for a Great Read readers’ advisory survey or the Book-A-Librarian survey at yorkcounty.gov/Home/Libraries.aspx and the Services link.

Topics for Book-A-Librarian may include help with downloading digital items, library resources, technology and job materials. The appointments are scheduled for 15 or 30 minutes.

"Makerspaces, sometimes also referred to as hackerspaces, hackspaces, and fablabs are creative, DIY spaces where people can gather to create, invent, and learn. In libraries they often have 3D printers, software, electronics, craft and hardware supplies and tools, and more. Here are some excellent resources for anyone thinking about setting up a makerspace in their organization."

"In this age of outcomes measurement, many academic librarians are focused—and rightly so—on making sure they best serve students. Yet students are not the only population of end users on an academic campus. Faculty, too, are conduits not only to students but to library users in their own right. As well, studies of faculty attitudes such as Ithaka’s often show that, even as faculty increasingly depend on library-brokered online access to expensive databases and electronic journals, the off-site availability of modern resources may leave many faculty members less aware of the crucial role of the library in their and their students’ workflow."

AMIA is a nonprofit, international association dedicated to the preservation and use of moving image media. As the world’s largest association of professional media archivists, AMIA brings together a broad range of experts and institutions in a single forum to address the best ways to preserve our media heritage.

AN INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL FORMATS AND STORAGE

This series focuses on digital file formats, storage, and transfer workflows. [Eight webinars]

BEST PRACTICES FOR PERSONAL AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVES

This series is directed to families and individuals with audiovisual collections they wish to preserve. [Two webinars]

BEST PRACTICES FOR SMALL AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVES

This series is directed to small institutions with audiovisual collections and limited staff. [Two webinars]

ALA President Sari Feldman and President-Elect Julie Todaro respond to a recent Wall Street Journal editorial about librarians in the age of Google.

"Nothing could be further from the truth than the outdated stereotype of libraries and librarians that Steve Barker presents in his January 11 article. In Boston at our national conference this past week, we heard repeatedly from colleagues among the thousands gathered that this might be the most exciting time of opportunity in libraries and for librarians. Attendees included librarians of all ages and demographics, librarians who—whether in school, public, academic, or special library settings—take pride in playing an integral role in the educational, cultural, and information experiences of their patrons. Examples? Consider Multnomah County Library’s Lyndsey Runyan, a librarian who specializes in rethinking how to use existing space in public libraries for 21st-century learning and creation. She’s overseeing a new facility near Portland, Oregon, for underserved teenagers to build science, technology, engineering, arts, and math skills by making electronic music, building robots, utilizing 3-D printers, and more. How about Kristina Holzweiss, Bay Shore Middle School librarian, who developed “GENIUS Hour,” a teamwork-based program in which students create original presentations while exploring their own passions from robotics to coding? Or George Washington University Gelman Librarian Bill Gillis who co-teaches a required freshmen writing class where students learn to use research and sources to expand their horizons and strengthen their writing? Rather than being pushed aside by the information revolution, our public libraries alone continue to host more than 1.5 billion visits annually—or about 4 million per day. Our school and academic libraries are destinations for millions of students daily for research and information literacy assistance from expert librarians. In fact, recent findings from the Pew Research Center reveal that librarian assistance is the most important library service we provide, after free access to books and media (just ahead of free access to computers and the internet)."